http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/torectify17.htm
To rectify past errors, airport reveals minutes
Newly released minutes from the Barnstable airport commission include topics such as labor contracts and personnel decisions. (Staff photo by Steve Heaslip) After attending a spring workshop in Barnstable about open meeting and public information laws, airport commission chairman Arthur Kimber discovered the violations when he reviewed the commission's records.
''I like to operate in a way where there's no ambiguity,'' Kimber said after Tuesday's meeting. ''We do not operate in secret. We do not operate in powwows at local restaurants.''
Oversight of the airport has come under repeated scrutiny in the last year. In December, Barnstable police investigated the authenticity of signatures on a pair of airport leases. Ultimately, police found that in ''all probability,'' no forgery had taken place. Still, Kimber responded to the police probe by announcing in January that all future airport contracts and leases must be signed and dated in blue ink and that original documents will be stamped with a raised seal.
In July, the airport commission - as well as airport manager Quincy ''Doc'' Mosby, his assistant and the airport's counsel - were named in a federal lawsuit filed by airport tenant Rectrix Aerodrome Centers Inc. Included in the 61-page complaint is an allegation that airport officials deliberately kept certain public documents from the tenant. Under the state's current open meeting law, enacted in 1975, government agencies may go into closed executive sessions for nine reasons, including discussion of collective bargaining agreements, personnel issues, litigation, and the purchase of real estate.
Those minutes can be kept private, however, only until the matters addressed in the executive session are resolved. The newly released executive session minutes include discussions about labor contracts, personnel decisions and real estate acquisitions. This month, with the help of two other commissioners, Kimber will review minutes from executive sessions between 1997 and 2001 to see which additional records should be released to the public
1 comment:
This is a case where one Commission is left to clean up the mess left by a previous group. This is a good call by Chairman Kimber - especially as they are working to clear the bad press that the Townsfolk seem to crave! I know, I am part of the design team working on a new passenger terminal for Hyannis. The combination of confusion, opportunism, and years of pent up Town frustration can be a lethal mix to a fairly straightforward process.
Keep your fingers crossed for us - 1 more Cape Cod Commission subcommittee meeting left before we go to a general hearing to approve the Hyannis Terminal Project.
Good luck at ORH, too!
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